Why we stare at candles

I think people are almost universally mesmerized by things like fire and water because they remind us of our true nature.  They are dynamic.  Everything changes, every moment, in the flame of a candle, the rush of a stream, or the roar of a waterfall.  As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, "You can't step in the same river twice."  I think we stare at these things and find them soothing because they remind us that we, too, are transformed completely from moment to moment.

The Buddhist notion that we change completely from moment to moment is the foundation of my personal philosophy and the reason I call this blog "Embrace Your Changing Self".  Around 600 BC, Buddha was on a spiritual quest to become enlightened.  In those days and in that place, most people thought that the secret to becoming enlightened was to look within and find the inner self, the "Atman", that did NOT change.  "Atman" was pure, perfect, eternal, like a shining inner light.  Get in touch with "Atman", it was thought, and you could be enlightened.

So Buddha got to work, meditating deeply, quickly surpassing the depths of concentrations of the gurus who tried to teach him.  But the more he looked, the more he became convinced that there was no "Atman".  Furthermore, he realized that this was OK.  No, he saw that it was good.  In fact, he saw that the very search for an "Atman" or anything else unchanging inside this changing self was the source of self-induced suffering.  You could only be disappointed if you tried to cling to a perfect thought, feeling, or consciousness because all these things change and always will change.  He took this thought further.  It isn't just "Atman".  Any attempt to cling to any fixed notion of who we are, physically, mentally, or spiritually, leads to suffering because we will be disappointed when things change.  There are tendencies, habits, and traits, just as a river tends to run this direction and then that direction.  But the river still flows and so do we.